Adventures in Rocket Science

The middle school students at my kids' school had to do a Science Fair Project. My son, on reading the list of available topics, jumped at the chance to study the aerodynamics of rockets with the excuse to launch his model rockets. The idea being to compare the styles and sizes of rockets and seeing which design works/flies better. We realize this has been done many times, but for an 8th grade boy to be able to shoot off rockets and get a grade for it, he couldn't resist.

What I didn't know, and apparently neither did his teacher, is that launching model rockets in the metro Atlanta area is near impossible to do. Gwinnett county itself has an ordinance specifically against launching the rockets in the public parks. Most of the surrounding counties do as well. Someone at one point suggested a state park or a national park. Unfortunately, both of those consider model rockets to be fireworks, which are prohibited. A last resort came when we found the local model rocket club which has launches twice a month.

What makes this an adventure was that for a month, we did the research on our own on places to fly. Now, we're lucky in that we have family with property in north GA and in Alabama. Unfortunately for us, the weather NEVER cooperated when we took the rockets out there. We did try the local park that the rocket club suggested. We struck out, though, when on one day there were too many people and on the other the rockets refused to launch.

So, the lesson learned is that unless you have private property large enough and clear enough to launch rockets on your own, you HAVE to find the local rocket club. Which is sad, really, considering you can buy the things at any local hobby shop. The hobby shops, though, will generally tell you that they have no idea where you can launch them.

End of Semester 1

The new semester starts after the holiday and the old semester is gone. My kids and I survived the transition. I won't say this semester has been successful, it's definitely been stressful. In the end, though, my kids passed all courses for the first semester. Some of the grades I wonder about, but now that we have something of a clue as to what to do and how to do it, next semester should run better. I certainly won't get ambitious and say it will run smoothly. Somehow, with all the hormones in the house, I sincerely doubt that's possible.

I still have my issues with Gwinnett Online Campus, but I'm hoping it works its way out quickly. My son is focused on getting to 9th grade, he's really liking the idea of going over to GSMST. He knows what it's going to take to get to 9th grade from here, he knows what I expect of him. He's still working on coming to terms with what will be expected of him if he does go to GSMST.

My daughter, on the other hand, is loving getting the best of both school worlds. She loves being able to do work at home and then do what she wants. She loves being able to go to school for the labs and hang out with her friends. As much as she likes one of the teachers, though, I get the impression she's indifferent to them. She's thinking about what she wants to do for next year. We're holding off on a decision, though, until after this school year is out.

Monday Musings

So I've decided that while the school has definite issues to work out, at least half of my issues are my own. My main problem is that the school isn't exactly what it was advertised. Part of that is due to the lack of enrollment that they expected this year (at most around 85 students total for middle school), so they had to change some of what was originally planned. The variety of students they received within that enrollment, I think, is more than they figured as well. As such, with only 4 teachers for the entire MS, things just aren't happening.

I suppose that because my son has had such problems, it has colored my view against a lot of it. Though, hearing some of the other parents complain of the same thing, means it isn't just me. Most of those I'm hearing from, though, are also former GCA parents. We got used to one thing at GCA and expected a hybrid school (the one advertised) and didn't get it.

My son hit 8th grade hard, with teen issues already. Then having to adjust to an entire new system didn't help. From there top it with the problems the school is having in managing the students they have and it was a major catastrophe.

Math for my son has always been easy. From K-8 math, he blew through the material. At GCA, he developed bad habits that we're working to break. At GOC, he was finally CHALLENGED by the material. Given the attitude he started with, this was not a good thing. Add in the fact that he started the semester off taking a HS level math class and was expected to learn the material on his own (with no teacher support) built on the problem. The school has since started having one of the HS math teachers actually TEACH the lessons when he's on campus for labs, which is an improvement. It's not a fix, as that's only one day a week. You can't teach all of the material in one day, much less support the material they're learning. So, the math falls to my husband to teach when my son has issues. It was this that had us leaving GCA (partially) last year. Those that know me know why, but I'm not able to teach my son math. It's very counter productive for me to try. So, when GOC advertised that we'd have all the help we needed, the teachers would teach, not the parents, we fell into a trap. We're recovering, though my son's grades suffered in the mean time.

I'll give several of my kids' teachers credit though, they've always been upfront and have had no problem letting me know when there's a problem. Given the way everything else has gone, I appreciate they're taking the time to DO THEIR JOB and help me help my student.

So, I have an attitude problem and it's coloring most of what I see and do. It's gotten fairly extreme when it comes to my kids (particularly my son) and their school. I keep my mouth shut (mostly) to keep me from saying something I might regret later.

With the schools now offering open houses to prospective new parents, I'm not sure I can recommend the school or not. I'm not unbiased, I can't give a neutral review. For anyone that might be looking, I'd say take it all with a grain of salt and be willing to take on the bulk of helping your child learn. If you can manage that, then it may just work for you. For me, next year is all up in the air. My son will head to HS, my daughter will still be MS. I'll have some decisions to make, we'll see how those come out.

Monday Musings

This school year has been a major struggle for us. We got off on the wrong foot with my son and had to play a major catch up game. By mid-terms we found out that my daughter had slipped as well. We caught up and thought we'd get the second half of the semester off to a good start only to hit another road bump. I won't call it major, but it seemed so at the time. My kids aren't monitoring their work well and apparently I'm inept at following up. A couple of the teachers are good at giving me a quick heads up on issues, but others not so much. It's to the point where I'm contemplating if it's all worth the effort.

We moved from GCA last year for a couple of reasons. One being that I wasn't able to support my son's accelerated math curriculum. Another that I had started work (part time) and I found it hard to juggle both. A third, and rather major one, was that I plan to have my kids attend a regular brick and mortar high school. This was to be a transition especially for my son back to that point. I've had it pointed out to me that maybe the transition is as much for me to relearn how to deal with "regular" teachers and schools as it is for the kids.

So, I'm working on my research into our options. I've plugged in with the cluster superintendent and the local HS principal to get information about the zoned HS. I've plugged in with a mom I haven't spoken to in a while who has students attending our zoned MS. So far she's been pleased with the programs they've been offered and has had no problems. Since I unplugged as a substitute teacher, I'm trying to work on reconnecting to other sources as well. Maybe our area is improving enough where I can actually consider sending my daughter to the local MS next year. I don't know. It's all very fluid at this point.

Friday Facts (Charter Schools)

With all the debate going on about the upcoming Charter School amendment, I wanted to present some information here for you to review. Just a note: I am not against the charter school amendment, I'm actually for it. I'm against a portion of the law that goes into effect when the amendment passes. It does not allow for true transparency or representation on the board that would do the charter school approvals. At any rate, for your review..

From the Georgia Public Policy Foundation

- FAQs about the Charter school amendment

- Financial Impact of Charter Schools

From Georgia Hope

- Fact vs. Fiction

- Setting the Record Straight

Of course, you can always read the bills themselves here:

-http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/en-US/display/20112012/HR/1162

- http://www1.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/sum/hb797.htm

School Comparison update (GOC v. GCA)

Now that we have made it through the first few weeks of school, I feel that I can give more of a comparison between the two schools. I find it somewhat funny that I find the advice I give to new parents at Georgia Cyber just as appropriate to give to me this year. I can't expect to have everything under control the first few weeks of school. In fact, it's taken a good month of school for me to figure out how things are going to have to work for me and the kids. New school, new system, new teachers, etc. The catch, though, is that I have less leeway when it comes to grades. GOC doesn't give as much adjustment time before jumping into assessments. That has made it that much harder to figure out and made the scramble to get things in place that much more difficult.

Given that GOC is a new school with a new system, the teachers have given some amnesty in certain areas to help out the students. I can only hope we can take full advantage of it.

To give a comparison, though, you have to first consider the interface that the schools are using. GCA uses K12's interface. For a parent, it is very straight forward putting everything together for you to see what your student has done and needs to do. True, they use multiple web sites for different tasks, which can be confusing (ie: Study Island for progress tests and CRCT review), but it's manageable.

GOC, on the other hand, uses Desire 2 Learn and does not have an easy interface for the parents. You have an auditor's account to look at grades, but you can't see what your child has or has not done. You can't see their upcoming task list. for that, you have to log in to the student's account and go digging. There is one link for the student's assignments and another to check if they've turned in their assignments. I'm not used to having to dig for my kids' coursework.

It took my kids some adjustment to figure out the system as well. I think they'd rather do GOC with the GCA system. The big thing they've enjoyed is going onto campus twice week for the hands-on labs. The school has had their first in-house field trip recently and has their first off campus field trip later this week. They've also had their first day of intramurals. The "extras" are what my kids have wanted most, they're having to decide if the switch was worth it.

The Educator's Room @educatorsroom

For the past couple of months, I've been writing/creating articles for a new web site/magazine called The Educator's Room. My articles are written from a parent perspective since I'm not a teacher. The articles that are hosted are written by educators and others involved in the education of our children from around the nation.

My most recent article is Virtual Schools: An alternative choice for parents. This being our third year using a virtual school for our kids, I wanted to make sure that more parents realize it IS a choice for them to make.

I've also been helping to work on the Pinterest pages for the group. It's been a lot of fun finding new information that may be useful to teachers or to parents who teach at home (whether using home school curriculum, purchased online curriculum, or public virtual school). With parents realizing they have to be more involved in their child's education, it makes a wonderful resource.

I highly recommend checking it out. Not just because I contribute, though I'd love for you to check out my articles and provide useful feedback, but because I believe it's a valuable resource. You can find us on facebook as well: https://www.facebook.com/TheEducatorsRoom